Caribbean & Central America - February 2011 (ISSN 1741-4458)
Military given indefinite role in combating organised crime
There is no end in sight to the use of the armed forces in combating organised crime in El Salvador. That uncompromising message might have been expected from the lips of any previous president in El Salvador’s history but instead it came from the mouth of President Mauricio Funes, the country’s first left-wing head of state. Speaking in late January during a military promotion ceremony, Funes said he would use the armed forces “indefinitely†with the PolicÃa Nacional Civil (PNC). He said the battle against organised crime did not have “deadlines†but rather “objectivesâ€. His state security strategy is very similar to that being carried out by the centre-left President of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, where the military had also retreated from public life after a long civil war but is now playing an increasingly active role.
There is no end in sight to the use of the armed forces in combating organised crime in El Salvador. That uncompromising message might have been expected from the lips of any previous president in El Salvador’s history but instead it came from the mouth of President Mauricio Funes, the country’s first left-wing head of state. Speaking in late January during a military promotion ceremony, Funes said he would use the armed forces “indefinitely†with the PolicÃa Nacional Civil (PNC). He said the battle against organised crime did not have “deadlines†but rather “objectivesâ€. His state security strategy is very similar to that being carried out by the centre-left President of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, where the military had also retreated from public life after a long civil war but is now playing an increasingly active role.
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